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V 






THE ELECTORAL CRISIS. 



AN ADDHKSS 



S THE 



lAil I'll 






GETTYSBURG, 



TUESDAY, OCTOBEFw 25, 1864. 



BY JAMES S. WOODBURN, 

PASTOR 01' SAID CHURCH. 






iuld rather be right than be President."— Hi 






GETTYSBURG 

II. C. NEINSTEDT, PRE 

iRNER OF \VI 

1864. 



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f/^ ., 



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rYSBURG, I >( 

To Mr. J. if. Whi S rctarj for a meeting of tin- Gettysburg I , 
P. Congregation, held Oct. 25ib, 18! . 

Dear Sir : I own to a feeling of unfeigned .. ■■ • 
upon receiving the information oi a resolution, that 1 "b< d to 

give to the Congregation a copy of my address, delivered this uion 
■with a view to its publication for their use and instruction." At first 1 felt 
disposed mirthfully to express myself satisfied with the com- 

pliment, and straightway to decline the doubtful honor of, in this 
way, and at this time, coming before the public. But upon further re- 
flection, I have felt differently inclined. Although thi :n in 
reference to which it was prepared and in the very heat of which it has 
been delivered, may, and perhaps shall, be concluded before tl 
sees the light, I cannot but flatter myself, that if the views tl 
forth are worthy of the peoples' consideration at any tim . ill be 
almost as deserving of their consideration after the election, while, 
it may well be hoped, they may then be read and poi nth a 
calm, unprejudiced and prayerful state of mind. And i midst 
all its allusions to campaign questions and characters, every line of the 
address will show that it was never intended as an electioneering docu- 
ment. The sole object for which it was prepared and was 
to remove or appease certain grievances, real or imaginary, which were 
supposed to have been conceived with reference to the way in which it 
is generally known, I am determined to exert the power of my suf- 
frage in this fearfully important political crisis. These aggrievanee?, I 
am glad to be informed, if they ever had an existence b yond the dis- 
tempered imaginations of outsiders, on yesterday, and as a result of a 
congregational conference, held over this single and imperfect exhi 
have ever made of my views upon the present condition and future pros- 
pects of our country, were most happily appeased. 

I have likewise thought that a simple compliance with your r 
might go very far towards removing, or at least qualifying the im] 
sions which I am told others have conceived as to my views and sympa- 
thies touching our common nation's sure life-and-death struggle, l 
ever humble, every one who really is, cannot but, be desirous to be 
teemed a patriot, even though he may uot be willing to pay an unquali- 
fied deference to that clamorous, and, I am constrained to feel, un- 
christian spirit of Unionism which would almost compel a man to carry 
the "colors," as a bosom ornament constantly about with him. Praying 
that God could give to all our citizens a better understanding of the 
great questions that relate to us as a nation, and a more Christian for- 
bearance with one another, when they are led conscientiously to di 
about the best practical way of dealing with thi ns, 1 hereby en- 

e myself, as soon as I shall be able to re-write it, (for ! ha 
only in a set of brief-long-hand characters untelligih one but 

myself,) to hand my address to you that it may be at the pleasurable 
posal of the congregation. 

I am, dear Sir, 

Your humb i ite Pastor, 

.). S. WOODBI 



Gettysburg, Nov. 7th, L864. 

ri", 

I submit to you herewith the promised manuscript. I 

iments for its early publication have been 

found to be impracticable. The circumstances forestalling these ar- 

have incidentally been reported to meto-da 
have increased greatly the regret, I was made to feel keenly enough be- 
f C)1Ti — that I have not beeu able ere this to let the manuscript go from 
3ny hands. 

To what appears in ray letter of October 26th, I mast add this, in cor- 
rection of an erroneous impression that has gone abroad, that the de- 
livery of this addn \luntary with myself. With perhaps one or 
ons, there was not one in my congregation, who had any 
knowledge of the intention I was cherishing until an an- 
nouncement of its forthcoming was made some ten days previous to its 
delivery. My only regret now is that circumstances over which I had 
no control, prevented me from sooner carrying out my intention, and 
that at the last I have thus imperfectly to carry it out. 
For I will not conceal the fact that the address, as lately delivered, and 
as here preserved, is in the main not precisely what I had wished it to be. 
Could I have hoped that the privilege would not have been que 

. or ones to the far greater detriment of myself ami the 
' . [ should have liked, in view of the request with which 
the congregation have flattered me, to have exerted myself to make the 
embodiment a truer exhibition of the i 1. a, — by suppressing that is, much 
that is purely political, and introducing greatly more that is properly 
theological or prophetical. 

J. S. W. 



S KJf M ON 



Mv Fellow Citizens: — 

For so shall I address you this morning, and for the reason 
that while I am speaking from the altar of my sacred minis- 
trations, I could wish to be regarded for once, not in the high 
character of the minister of God, but in that simply of an 
American citizen. — it is scarcely possible to over-estimate the 
importance of the campaign through which we are now pass- 
ing. It is, in my humble view, most unlike any of those 
through which we have already passed — campaigns which 
have proved to be but the mere quadrennial epochs of our 
national life. Tins bids fair to become the very crisis of our 
history — the turning point, for weal or for w r oe, of our na- 
tional existence. Never were there issues so vast — 
were there responsibilities so grave devolved upon an} 
pie as are those that are devolved upon our people to .It 
would be impossible for me here, as well as foreign to the 
object I have in view upon the present occasion, to attempt 
even the briefest recital of the things which combine to give 
the most unprecedented character and weight to the in 
ing presidential election. But widely different as may be, 
and, no doubt, are the views that you severally enterl 
the relative importance of these thing;, you will all 
with me that never has there been such and that, 

probability, never shall there be such another a time a 
— a time involving so momentous an issue — a time incurring 
so frightful a risk. If I could only be raised above th 
that it is to be the end, I might be induced to believe that it 
may prove but the beginning of times to our land. 

Such a time as the present is, therefore, not time to be in- 
different. If it were, I should certainly hail with j< 
happy privilege. Believe me — I fee! that the arena of our 
national politics is too deeply disturbed and too wildly 
ted to admit of the minister of th oe, letting 

himself down to it even for a momen 
of reasons. But it is no time to sho' 
ferent. On the contrary, it is a time calling loudly up 



to feel and to manifest our deepest concerns. Even to 
pear to be neutral now, would be to exhibit a character bot 
disloyal and detestable. It is, as I solemnly feel and would 
as solemnly proclaim, incumbent upon all our citizens to act, 
and to act as in the fear of God, and out of the deepest concern 
for the welfare of the land. But especially do I feel and would 
I proclaim, that it is incumbent upon the Christian portion of 
our citizens to act and to make their influence be felt in the pre- 
sent fearful crisis. The moral obligation is not, indeed, great- 
er essentially in their case than in others. Bat for the very 
reason that others will not meet this obligation as they ought, 
it is made to devolve upon them with, as it were, an acciden- 
tal force also. God's people are the salt of the earth. By 
their conserving influence they hold society together and pre- 
vent it from becoming one unmingled mass of putrid rotten- 
ness. If, therefore, the salt have lost its savor, wherewith 
shall the earth be salted ? When, if ever, the time shall 
come when the people of God shall entirely lose their still- 
ness, the earth shall thenceforth be good for nothing but to 
be cast out and trodden under foot of men. 

I repeat God's people must act and fulfil their varied re- 
lations and duties in society. They are under the most 
bounden obligation so to do. And yet they must not act as 
do others. They must not run with the multitude to do evil. 
"The voice of the people" is not to be to them, "the voice of 
God." Nor are they at any time to ally themselves to, or in 
any way fraternize with any of the political organizations 
that may be found within the State. They are under the 
most solemn obligations to keep themselves free from every 
such entanglement. At a time like this, and indeed in every 
campaign like this, they must of necessity act with one or 
other of the two or more political factions ; for observations 
as well as history, shows that the only practicable issue pre- 
sented to the State is always in more or less intimate connec- 
tion with these organizations, unholy and unwarrantable as 
they are. But while they are acting with them, and while 
for the time being, they are really of one or other of them, 
they must be careful to preserve themselves distinct fi 
them. Though in them betimes, they are never to be of 
them. They are ever to bear in the most solemn remem- 
brance that these political factions, like the very forms of so- 
3 themselves from which they spring, are without the least 
divine warrant — that they exist only by divine sufferance, — 
that sooner or later they are to be deluged with an over 1 . 



■ flood of Divine wrath, that shall ti 

with all such as arc wholly given up to them, into l\ 
mal gulf of perdition, ami that unless they do come out I 
them and preserve themselves separate from them, they can 
never hope to deliver themselves entirely from the plagues 
with which they shall be visited. 

This, then, as 1 humbly conceive, is the position which the 
Christian as the denizen of this world is to maintain with re- 
spect to earthly governments and the worldly societies, or 
factions, in them. Alas ! my Christian brethren, that we should 
be living so far below this position. There is not, I dare 
say, one of all of us who professes to be, not conformed to 
this world, but transformed from it, that is keeping himself 
as free from the party politics, and the political associations of 
the times as he should. This is, indeed, as I am ever pre- 
d to avow the position which I am striving to attain and 
to maintain. But I frankly confess that while I have felt it 
easy in feeling to attain this position, I have found, and am 
yet finding it one of the most difficult things in the world in 
life to maintain it. The flattering cajolleries of the one 
party, and the railling accusation of the other party, togeth- 
er with the wilful or ignorant misrepresentations of the mem- 
bers of both are continually working upon me, both to entice 
and provoke me to become one of the most confirmed poli- 
ticians of the day. But I am resolved, by the help of God's 
grace, to allow neither the coquetry of the one party, nor 
the affected disdain of the other, to move me one hairs- 
breadth from that high, that .independent position which I 
am so fully convinced it most becomes me, both as a Chris- 
tian and as a minister, to maintain. 

And now having given you this much with regard to the 
true position of Christians in general, and of my own in 
particular, permit me to express the hope that you are in 
some degree prepared patiently to hear and impartially to 
weigh an humble statement and a brief discussion of the 
somewhat indefinite views to which I am adhering during the 
incumbent political campaign. The peculiar, indirect man- 
ner in which this statement is made, has been adopted 
the reason that it was judged most conducive to the end in 
view — of giving to you a sort of manifesto of the position 
together with some of the reasons inducing it, which I am led 
solemnly, and as in the fear of God, to take up the momen- 
tous questions submitted for the decision of the \ i 
people to-day. 



8 

We shall not stop to enquire what are all the things that 
combine to give the most unprecedented character and weight 
to the present presidential campaign. It will, behoove us 
however, to inquire after the chief of these things. For 
while there are many things involved in our canvass, they 
are by no means of equal weight and importance. 

What is the great, the cardinal issue to be made up — what 
is the great, the crowning responsibility to be met, by our 
people at the approaching November election ? I ask this 
question in no petty partisan spirit. I ask it with the deep- 
est solicitude to know and to state the truth. I believe our 
people should have this question asked of them and, if need 
he, answered for them ; and in this belief I am bold to say, 
that the first, the permanent duty of all our journals is to 
state, and to the very best of their ability, candidly to an- 
swer this question. And yet, I must here charge upon all 
them a disposition to overlook, if not entirely to ignore this 
imperious duty. I speak not now of any particular journal, 
or of the journals of any particular faction. They all, from 
the largest double-sheeted city daily that circulates by its 
hundreds and even thousands to the little petty village 
weekly, that circulates only by its tens and twenties, fall 
alike under the stroke of this condemnation. In all the 
journals I have seen from time to time — and I always make 
it a point to glance at least at every one with which I meet, — 
I have never found this question so much as touched upon in 
a manner that should for a single moment shield the editorial 
chair from the charge, either of being entirely ignorant of 
the commanding position to which it is justly entitled, or else 
of being criminally disposed to suppress it from the view and 
attention of the people. Oh ! if our democratic journals 
would only stop to consider what a hold they might have 
upon the intelligence and affection of our people by a calm, 
dispassionate and patriotic statement and discussion of the 
great, over-topping question of this campaign, and if, in one 
united and harmonious effort to conduct and further this dis- 
cussion, they were to cease their low and scurillous abuse of 
men and officers in power, they might, raethinks, do much to 
vindicate themselves against the charge of disloyalty, or that 
of any other opprobrious epithet, under which, as a great po- 
litical incubus, they are so generally lying, and by the very 
reason of which so many of them have become powerless for 
lite least good. 



9 

Before advancing to a statement of the grov.t paramount 
question now presented to the American people ion, 

suffer me to give utterance to that upon which, as a ground- 
work or basis, this stupendous issue rets itself. This is, the 
practical dismemberment of the old United Si I thi 

consequent unavoidable necessity of seeking am w for t\ 
reconstruction. Be not alarmed, my hearers. I am not, as 
you may fear, or rather, as you might easily persuade 
yourselves to believe, either a disunionist or a secession sym- 
pathizer. I repudiate as strong y as any 1 man can. the 
rebel-projected doctrine of State secession. I avow as flvra- 
ly as any living man can, the authority of the Federal { 
eminent to coerce a revolting State to the obedience of the 
federal constitution and laws. I am now, however, speaking 
of what, in fact, is, and not of what in theory, is, and there- 
fore in fact ought to be. I repeat, the old UniU 

; practically disintegrated. I do not mean, let me say 
still further in defence of my position, that the South has 
established its independence upon the ground of a revolution. 
Nor do I mean to express my opinion as to whether we 
should now, or at any time, sue first for an armistice of hos- 
tilities and then for a friendly, conventional negotiation, 
looking to a peaceful reconstruction of the States. But [do 
mean to say is that as we stand to-day, we are no longer one 
people, that we are at least two peoples, and that go on 
fighting as long as we will and reach the end of our military 
achievements as soon as we will, yet as the most incontesta- 
ble proof that we are now disunited now, the time will come 
when, (if indeed we desire the re-establishment and prosper- 
ity of our republican institutions,) we shall be compelled to 
come to friendly negotiations looking to the peaceful recon- 
struction of the Federal Union. And here I am by no 
means unwilling to accord the credit of the deepest practical 
philosophy to the charge which we war advocates sometii 
hear from the lips of the advocates of peace: "You cannot 
conquer a peace." No, my fellow-citizens we cannot con- 
quer a republican peace. A republican rebellion we may 
and I trust we very soon shall conquer. But a republican 
peace — a peace like to that in the bonds of which we lived and 
prospered for over seventy years— the very peace for which 
we are now draining the land of the blood of many of our I 
young men, — we shall never be able to conquer ; and therefore 
I hesitate not to say, it would be tl our policy never 



10 

to attempt this which can spring alono from the spontaneous 
assent and consent of the people. ' To return. The sum of 
what I mean to say about the present practical condition of 
our country is simply this, that the old union of '76 and 
again of '87 is really temporally destroyed — that, if indeed 
we be able indefinitely to maintain our status as a govern- 
ment, the time must come, and the more speedy and over- 
whelming are our victories, the sooner it will come when in 
effect, the question will have to be submitted to the people of 
the South. Will you, or will you not return to a union with 
the people of the North ? 

Did I say, my fellow-citizens, that in the progressive march 
of our armies the point will eventually be reached when the 
South shall have to be invited to return to a union vs'itb the 
North ? How fondly do we all anticipate this time ! How 
very near to our realizations do our anticipations oftentimes 
bring it ! And yet, alas ! I fear this time is much farther 
off than most of us are <nven to imagine. 

But on the supposition that this fondly anticipated time is 
coming, what shall that particular union be in the bonds of 
which the South is to be invited to return to the North ? 
This is not a question for me to answer. This is a question 
— this is the question for you to answer, American Citi- 
zens. This, this, I repeat, is the paramount question you 
are called to put to rest at the coming presidential election. 
In what kind of a union shall the people of the South be in- 
vited to return to us ? Shall they be invited to return in the 
bonds of a union in every respect like the old ? Or, shall 
they be asked to come back in the bonds of a much higher- 
toned union, a union, which, if once formed, might afford 
the promise of a longer and happier continuance 1 This, 
this, I repeat yet again, is the great paramount question to 
be settled in the impending election. This it is that forms 
the chief plank, not indeed of the platforms upon which the 
two opposing candidates have been nominated, but of the 
platforms to which they have both voluntarily advanced 
themselves and by which they have in effect, declared them- 
selves willing to stand or to fall. This is therefore, the ques- 
tion that should give character and form to the whole of the 
incumbent campaign. Whether our politicians and journals 
will permit us to say it or not, this question involves almost 
the entire weight of the responsibility that has been devolved 
upon our people in this fearfully important crisis ; and so 



11 

very weighty and important is it that in comparison with it 
every other is made to sink into utter insignificance. 

And here just permit me to say, what both parties, (if they 
would respect themselves as they should respect each other,) 
would admit, that the credit of union or the discredit of dis- 
union, attaches particularly to neither party in this campaign. 
If we may take the utterances of the honored and (I will 
add) the honorable candidates as the materials from which to 
form our judgment, certainly the discredit of disunion be- 
longs to neither of them. If we may take these same utter- 
ances as the material from which to form our judgment again 
— and to the unbiassed citizen such utterances are worth more 
than ten thousand planks in ten times ten thousands plat- 
forms — they are both union, yet neither of them so charac- 
teristically so as wholly to rob the other of being so al 
These men call themselves or rather permit themselves to'be 
called the nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties 
respectively. If we ply our ears to the oracle of but one of 
these parties we shall find that they bear the euphoneous cog- 
nomens of Copper Iw ad and Union. But we will defer to no 
oracle, however pretentious. In my humble view, neither of 
these parties can be appropriately designated by either of 
these names. Appropriate epithets with which to designate 
them both., would not be hard to find. The Constitutional 
and the Reform would as I think, most truthfully represent 
them as they now oifer themselves in the person of their compet- 
ing candidates for the suffrages of the American people. And 
if there is any one thing above every other I could wish to 
have seen in this highly exciting campaign, it is this — all the 
party bannering and party electioneering being done under 
cover of its appropriate party nomenclature. 

iN T ow if these parties, which as I conceive, would be much 
more becomingly styled the Reform and Constitutional, Mr. 
Lincoln is the regular nomin.ee of the one, and Mr. McClel- 
lan of the other. Both these men have unstained moral 
escutcheons. Seldom, if ever, in the history of the land, 
have the names of two such honorable individuals been sub- 
mitted to the choice of our people. That whichever of them 
isjjelevated to the office of chief magistracy, will do whatever 
in him lies to carry out his avowed policy. 1 have not the 
slightest doubt. 

; If indeed the won! is intended to be used in its historic associations, 
the L>ein ■ n, is justly untitled to the su 



12 

shall then, as I think we are warranted to do, look up- 
on the voluntary utterances of these men as indicating us 
nearly as anything can. the distinct political policies that are 
presented to the choice of our people to-day. And with 
these opposing utterances in view, T say, with an assurance 
as unfaltering as it is deep, the great, the paramount ques- 
tion to be put to rest at the approaching election is this : — 
What is the particular kind of union in the bonds of which 
Ave shall invite the seceded States to returu ? Though they 
may not see it — though, as I fear, they do not, generally, 
see it, yet face to face with this question our people are 
now brought. As the direct result of the rise of what has 
been called the p\ace party, and whether prematurely or 
not, the resposibility of determining this result at once has 
been devolved upon the people of the North. From the 
settlement of this important question, therefore, we cannot, 
we dare not decline. 

To prove that this question is really in this canvass as well 
as to confirm my assertion that it involves the very burden 
of its responsibility, I need here only quote the authority of 
one whom I am persuaded we are all willing in 1S04 to re- 
gard as a very dangerous ultraist — Mr. Fremont. I doubt 
whether this man ever uttered a more ingenuous truth in his 
life, than when in his letter declining the nomination tender- 
ed him from the city of Cleavehmd, he declared that the posi- 
tion before the American people of the two chief rival candi- 
dates was this — Mr. Lincoln stands pledged to reconstruct 
our States only upon the basis of universal and everlasting 
freedom; while Mr. McClellan stands pledged to a willing- 
ness to reconstruct them upon the the constitution 
which recognizes the existence and right of slavery. In ut- 
tering this, Mr. Fremont struck the very key note of this 
whole campaign, and would to God that all our politicians 
and journalists had hut been pleased to take up the note thus 
furnished them by one who. so far as respects sympathy with 
the persons of the candidates, is certainly a disinterested 
man.* 

*That Mr. McClellan i.s pledgi I to ::- willingness to reconstruct the 

upon the basis of the old union, there can not be the shadow of 

a doubt. "The union," saj i hi expressly, ''is the one condition of 

peace — we ask no more." That Mr. Lincoln on the conti dped 

i itruct the States upon a in a basis of al 

lute and perpetual freedom, thei more surely than the merest 

iw of a doubt. His manifesto is as follows: 



13 

What now, we proceed to inquire, are the respective mer- 
its of the two distinct political policies submitted to tho 
choice of our people ? And herejust allow me to say that in 
using hereafter the names of Mr, Lincoln and Mr. McClel- 
lan, I have none but the most indirect allusion to them— the 
one as the acting President of the United States, and i he- 
other as the old, admired, but now relieved and affectedly 
disdained Commander of our armies. I use these names only 
to designate these men as the exalted heads of two great 
litical factions, or more properly still, as the voluntary pi 
jectors of two separate national policies. 

''Executive Mansion, Washington, July 18, I8G4. 
To all whom it may concern : 

Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peaci 
rity of the whole union, an le i bandonment of la\ ry, and which 
comes by and with authority that can control the armies now at war with 
the United States will lie mel by liberal te uitial 

and collateral points, ami the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe 
conduct both ways. 

A.BRA1 !OLN." 

Well has Mr. Curtis, a Democratic orator, said with i to this 

— "1 think if I were to read that paper to a jury of twelve intelligent n 
who knew the subject to which it relates and were to ask them to infer 
from it that Mr. Lincoln did not mean to make tl anient of 

slavery one of these conditions on which he is willing to have a restora- 
tion of the uiiien, 1 should provoke a very significant smile. As plain- 
ly as the English can speak, he couples ti iration of p 
'the integrity of the whole union,' and 'theaba I of slavery,' as 
the three things which must be presented to him in one proposition by 
the power that new controls the southern armies. A " 
. embracing these three things will he met pern 
ment of the United States — /<<<ic .' By liberal terms on thesi 
Not at all ! They shall be met by liberal terms on ' tantial 
and collateral points." The language is carefully frami i I - cs 
idea that there cau be any more liberality about the . ;nt of 
slavery than about the rity of the 
I nion. The one is as much a fixed purpi se with Mr. Lincoln as the 
two others. He knows that hi imty have so un 
stood him, and to this day he has never utt< 

that impression. We are b und to believe, that he does not wish to 
correct it." Thus "the issue is made up I Democrat- 

ic part) 7 ', on this point, [f he ( to us," 

continues the Democratic speaker, "so far as this matter is c nc 

There can be no mistake, then, about thi i . id' either 

candidates. "We ask," says General McClellan, "nothing but I'n 
''We,"says Mr. Lincoln, "demand with the I i ry." 

"You of tie' South," says lie 1 our. "can come i 
before you left." " i ine the Union, 

you mast abandon 
siili red" 



14 

First, the policy of Mr. McClellan most naturally chiims 
our attention, though it will require no extended separate 
discussion. What this policy is, the veriest child might tell 
us. It is a policy that involves the sovereignty of the fed- 
eral authority, together with the greatest possible subordin- 
ated states-rightism. It is, in short, the old union with all 
its advantages and with all its disadvantages, with all its 
blessings and with all its curses. It might not be and doubt- 

o t ... 

less would not be practicable to restore this in all its entirety. 
Nevertheless Mr. McClellan is pledged to a willingness to re- 
establish this union, should he be chosen President, as nearly 
as may be. As it might and perhaps even could, in the event 
of the election of Mr. McClellan, be re-established this union 
would be simply this — the recognition of the old federal au- 
thority in every part of the land, together with a renewed 
guarantee to the several States of the South of their politi- 
cal or constitutional right to all the property, personal, rela- 
tive and real, which by virtue of the old bond of the social 
compact, they may have in their possession at the time they 
shall submit to this authority. That Mr. McClellan would, 
if elected, as is sometimes charged upon him, lend his ut- 
most efforts to effect the rendition of the emancipated slaves 
and the restoration of all the confiscated lands of the South, 
is simply too preposterous to be thought of; nor do I believe 
that any man who is at all acquainted with his character and 
antecedents can honestly suppose him capable of such an 
atrocity upon an outraged and degraded humanity. Mr. 
McClellan, (let me say but this much in the praise of one for 
whom I have long entertained the highest regard both as a 
soldier and as a man,) by his past history has shown himself 
to be not the man to restore to any State what has been lost 
to it by its own shear default.* 

*To my knowledge Mr. McClellan is the only man who has ever sug- 
gest! lible and humane method of getting rid of slavery ia the 
Slates over which the authority of the constitution has nut beei . for any 
considerable time, resisted successfully. See his plain and apparently 
dictatorial, hut evidently sincere letter to Mr. Lincoln from Harrison's 
idiug.. In one of the concluding paragraphs of his detailed army 
>rt, Mr. McClellan has invited, attention, among othyr similar com- 
munications, to this very letter, and declared, "1 have seen no reason to 
change in any material regard the views there expressed/' IC anything 
7 amply apologise for the declaration of his 
most ardent friends, that, farthi r than is ab luti l\ required of him by a 
felt iuviulable constitutional statute, Mr. McClellan is not a Southern 
niau. 



15 

Next, and especially, as being n newly projected and m. 
tried thing, the policy of Mr. Lincoln demands our ra 
earliest and serious attention. And what is this policy which 
avowedly presents itself as something ".new under the sun ?" 
It is simply the reconstruction of our disintegrated States 
upon the basis of absolute and perpetual freedom Glorious 
project! Most delightful object! Enough to give to the 
man wdio shall be instrumental in affecting it an immortality 
greater than of Washington ! 0, my brethren would to Al- 
mighty God that our people from the chilly promonitories of 
the North to the balmy harbors of the South, and from the 
farthest shore of the Atlantic to the wave! ■-.■ d ep of the 
Pacific, were all prepared for just such a union ! And would 
that they could be induced to throw themselves forward in 
the legally prescribed, or constitutional way for the attain- 
ment of such a blessed result! 

But is such a union practicable in the present state of so- 
ciety in our land? Is it even possible ? In other words, arc 
our people ready for a reuniting of themselves in such a bond 
as this ? I need not say they are not. We need not here 
pass judgment upon our brethren of the South. The very 
North is far from being ready for such a result. There are, 
at this late day. throughout the North (I speak it with shame 
and undisguised holy indignation) thousands upon thousands 
of men, men who inhale our i'veo air in all its purity, men 
upon whom are dropping continually the very fatness of our 
free institutions, that are as much set upon the perpetual en- 
slavement and degredation of the poor negro, as are any 
who are to be found south of the latitude of Mason and Dix- 
on's line. 

I take it for granted, then, that the people of neither sec- 
tion of the land are prepared for a union of our States upon 
the plan proposed by Mr. Lincoln. And I am ready to con- 
cede that this simple fact, when duly considered, is amply 
sufficient to constitute, in part, the apology of any man for 
utterly repudiating, just now, such a Utopian policy. 

But it may be interposed here that this of itself is not a 
valid objection to the adoption of Mr. Lincoln's policy, of 
political reform. Nay, it doubtless will be urged here that 
if we w ? ou!d lend ourselves to the noble work of reforming 
the political character of our institutions, we must not wait 
until the people are prepared for the change — that we must, 
as men blind-folded, as it were, throw ourselves at once into 



16 

the effort and look upon the preparation of the people as a 
part of the very work to be accoplished. 

This looks plausible. I>ut I am seriously disposed to ques- 
tion the philosophy upon which it is based. Political refor- 
mation ought to be preceded by a good degree of popular 
reformation. I advance a step further. Every attempt to re- 
form the political character of society must be preceded by 
such an amount of popular reformation as shall strongly war- 
rant the hope of its being successful ; otherwise failing to 
accomplish the end aimed at, it must prove worse than a fail- 
ure, it will become ruinous. "If the foundation be destroy- 
ed what can the righteous do ?" If the pillars that bear up 
the very frame work of society, however weak their nature 
and awry their position, be removed, what can Samson, the 
strongest man, do ? Though he need not dread the final 
doom he must inevitably incur the temporal fate of his ene- 
mies the Philistines. 

The matter, then, narrows itself down tot his. — As the lead- 
er of the confessedly great and powerful party, whose ticket 
he heads to-day, can Mr. Lincoln enjoy the hope of being 
able to raze, as it were, the whole fabric, and digging down 
lay more deeply and more securely than ever, the very foun- 
dations of society ? Many of you, I have no doubt, are 
ready to say that he can. I am aware there has long been a 
hue and cry abroad in the land that the sentiments of the 
American people both North and South are undergoing a 
rapid and most healthful change upon the question that con- 
fessedly, in one way or the other, lies at the root of all our 
present political troubles. However, I must avow that, so 
far, I have felt myself to be as deaf as an adder to this cry. 
How this pretended change is going on among the people of 
the South, I cannot, indeed say. I trust, very well. But as 
to how it is progressing among the people of the North, 1 
arn compelled to say that it seems to me to be directly 
backwards. Why, is not Mr. Lincoln, at the head of the 
party which, four years ago, showed itself to be almost om- 
nipotent, confronted to-day by a party which to say the least 
is able to threaten his continuance in office ? Steadily has 
this party been swelling its ranks ever since the announce- 
ment of his famous emancipation proclamation, and now it 
stands forth ready, as it would almost seem to overwhelm 
him upon the very issues which that otherwise harmless ful- 
menation has brought to the lijzht. 



17 

I have never doubted the constitutionality, or rather, the 
military authority of that document.* But J have alwa 
doubted, and I to-day, more than ever doubt the expedien 
of such a measure. I am aware that thousands of oth 
whose opinions at the time seemed immeasurably more trust 
worthy thought different. 1 have in mind just now a very 
distinguished citizen, a leading minister in our church. v\ 
upon the announcement of the issue of such a paper, confi- 
dently predicted an uninterrupted scries of successes to our 
arms, the entire overthrow of the rebellion and the re-estab 
lishment of the union upon a much mure equitable and en- 
during basis, in less than six months. To his mind, we had 
been brought to grapple with the rebellion in a wroi 
but to forego this error and even rectify our federal p 
with God, nothing more was needed than simply the declara- 
tion of such a determination upon the part of our Chief Ma- 

trate. Subsequent events, however, I cannot but think 
have singularly disproved the correctness of a view so much 
side."! and so obviously superficial. .Subsequent events, 
I cannot but also think, have done much ify me to-day 

in indulging in the conviction, that, had Mr. Lincoln but 
held back his proclamation, contented himself with bearing 
down upon the iniquitous system of Slavery in the only way 
by which he has ever been able in any effectual way to 
by the application of the confiscation act ; and had he hue 
prosecuted the war as he begun, — for the simple purpose 
of re-establishing the Union, there never could have been 
formed against him a party formidable enough even to 
threaten his discontinuance in office until he should have put 
the rebellion completely to rest, and with it, too, the turbu- 
lent question of Slavery, and in a way much more speedy and 
humane than he is likely to find now. 

1 believe Mr. Lincoln's proclamation is never sought t o 1 
ny other ground than that it is a military measure. And \ 
intelligent men have exhibited th 
lity of supposing that by the very issuing of I 
kels have been struck off from eve limb in tin 

. nd that no earthly power whatever could assume th 
bind them on again or to reconstruct the union upon any I asis that 
win 1 leave them i lave; while the simpl 

■ ; - - hat if the raeasu s be simp] 
!• edict of the kind, it must await the power of 
as ii : hall i 
om to a corn 

rule 



18 

Do not gather from me here that I have any such idea as 
that Mr. Lincoln, as the result of the approaching election, 
is going to be pulled down from the highest chair of state in 
the land. I rather incline to the belief that he will not, nay, 
that he will triumph over his competitor by a pretty heavy 
electoral vote. But suppose he should triumph with the en- 
tire electoral vote! What then? you ask. He will still 
find himself confronted by an opposition powerful enough to 
thwart every effort he makes for affecting a reform— an op- 
position, which, as I most solemnly believe, will prove by 
far more dangerous to the country than if it were to over- 
i him at once, at the polls ! 
But not only is it a question with me as to whether Mr. 
Lincoln has the ability safely to meddle with the foundations 
of society just now ; it is also and chiefly a question with 
me as to whether he has the right even to attempt such a 
thing in thepartieular way he proposes to do. Mr. Lincoln 
is more a creature of the constitution than you or I. We, 
indeed, have inherited an obligation to at least passively sub- 
mit to this instrument of our" fathers. But he is sworn ac- 
tively to obey it. A most conscientious regard is, therefore, 
on tile part of Mr. Lincoln in the discharge of his official 
functions, due to every part of the constitution. 

what is the particular status that has been assigned 
to ( all of the States by the constitution ? Without 

multiply :-, I may just say that, to every one of them 

there' has been delegated the right, or privilege, to control as 
it] 11 its own internal affairs, slavery not excepted. 

lvania has this right guaranteed to her to-day. ^ She 
might hold an election to-morrow, and if her citizens wished 
she might legalize slavery the day after. South Carolina 
bt guaranteed to her before the passage of her 
ordinance of secession, Mr. Lincoln himself being judge. 
And obviously, unless the very genius of the constitution 
shall meanwhile have been changed, she should have this right 
laranteed to her again as soon as this ordinance is with- 
drawn. "But," says Mr. Lincoln, "she shall not have this 
She has professedly left the union in the bonds of 
ed this right. She occupies a stand to-day 
on which she has no rights whatever. Her liberties indeed 
tied up in one mighty comprehensive obligation to 
turn to the union. But she can be permitted to re- 

or any other union with the States of the ISorth, 
proposition to return can ever be con- 



19 

sidered, she i her per- 

fect willingness to have the very genius of this union, in one 
particula r , and to her a very important one, ch 

But has Mr. Lincoln the right to a iy such position 

as this upon the question of a reconstruction of our States? 
The n may be i e one of political casuistry 

ply. Has lie in i -ds, the right to figure in the char- 

acter of a Reformer, v governing in the & 

city of a Presidentor v city of a Comman 

in-chief? If he I i see nothing that can 

ibly secure our govern ^coming, in duo order 

of time, a sti despotism, unless in- 

id, it be t' ion and magnanin 

of tl will 

be bold enou i has this right. 

this very c. Lincoln himself, with the immediate ob- 

. of drawing in the radical wing of his own party 
has tacil I 

o here. I am not implei right 

of the South to hold si id could 

wish to be thought so. I am speaking, howi 
not moral rignts. Those of you who have seen Timothy 
Titcomb's very entertaining "Lessons in Life," will 
ber that in one of his it with the asser- 

i, - that wo ve a right to con- 

cting an ovei ;ument in proof of his : 

oed formidable ob 
to it, he ends >id avowal that he would not 

like much to hear any of his lady friends attempt so mascu- 
line a thii g. iw my individual position upon the question 
of "slavery" is not entirely unlike Mr. Titcomb's upon, that 
of "woni a us." I concede to all our States, under 
constitution and until the constitution has been constitution- 
ally changed, the il right (or privilege) of slavery. 
At the same time I deny the moral right of any of them in 

• individual or State capacity, to hold slaves. Such a 
right, no I as or ever has had. The whole pra 

the Southern States, in this matter, has been in the most di- 
rect contravention of the cleai tes of moral equity. 
ig they have committed, however, and for any 
wrong thi lere tain- 
ed plea of constitutional in general govern- 
ment, after it has cast its whole n uence against it, 
can be held no more accountable, than for any of the horrible 



20 

barities committed under the plea of religious consecra- 
tion by the inhabitants of India or China. 

But to return, Mr. Lincoln, I am compelled to say, has 
assumed a right which appertains to him neither as the sim- 
ple President of the United States, nor yet as the Comman- 
der-in-Chief of the armies thereof*. "Assumed it," interposes 
an ever ready interlocutor. "What then?" Is he not to be jus- 
tified even in assuming it? Can he not fall back upon the 
essential rectitude of the course itself, and do just as he pro- 
poses to do and as you yourself cannot but concede, it would 
be- well if he might or even could do ? "Such an appeal as 
this gives rise to what may properly be termed a casuistical 
question, partaking not alone of a moral hut also of a his- 
torical character, — viz : Flow far is a rcpulican ruler, 1 
or president, under an honest plea of bettering the condi- 
tion of society, justified in transcending the powers that 
have been expressly or impliedly delegated to him ? 

m the discussion of this question we cannot, of course, 
enter just now. Such a task would necessitate an examina- 
tion of history too minute for your patience at this late stage. 
Those of you, however, who are at all acquainted with his- 
tory, may well conjecture the conclusion to which such a 
course must inevitably conduct us. I know not of a single 
page of history that can in any way be brought in, in p 
of the point that a republican ruler is ever justifiable, even with 
the best of motives, in transcending the flight of his consti- 
tutional powers. Perhaps the reformation of society, by a 
character such as that in question, has never been attempted 
in so truly a magnanimous spirit as it was by Oliver Crom- 
well ; yet the history of England both during and after the 
reign of this great and good man, must be allowed to be con- 
veying to Mr. Lincoln to-day an admonition the most sig- 
nificant and solemn. "The government," says McCauley, 
speaking of the time of his protectorate, "though in form a 
republic, was in truth a despotism, moderated only by the 
wisdom, the sober-mindedness and the magnanimity of the 
despot." And from the consequences which such a danger- 
ous usurpation of power was about to entail, the English 
people, after his death, as every schoolboy knows, were soon 
glad to escape. "Be ye subject to the powers that be." 
There is. toy fellow-citizens, a divine philosophy in these 
"The powers that be!" These, to us as republican 
citizens, are the powers of the particular incumbent adminis- 
tration. To Mr. Lincoln, however, as a republican I'; 



21 

dcnfc, these are the powers of the established constitution. 
Upon us till docs the obligation to subjection devolve, but up- 
on none of us so immediately and solemnly as upon our chief 
magistrate. 

"Be ye subject to the [towers that be." Caesar was upon 
the throne when these words were attered. His usurpatl 
of power were glaring and undeniable. One would have 
supposed that resistance to such a tyrant might safely have 
been counselled.- But no. Be ye subject. And why? De- 
cause "the powers that be are ordained of God," and because 
"whosoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God," 
and "they that resist shall receive to themselves damna- 
tion." 

The injunction of the Apostle, taken in connection with 
all the considerations enforcing it, 1 believe to be this : "Be 
ye subject to the powers that be, for the powers that be are 
ordained of God." To rid yourselves or even society of in- 
cumbent evils, lay not hold of unwarrantable power. R< 
not, in any disorderly way, the powers that be ; for whoso- 
ever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and 
they that resist — except in those extreme eases where the 
right of revolution is conceded and the enjoyment of it al- 
lowed — shall receive to themselves damnation. The evils of 
society are indeed many and great, and ever shall be under 
the reign of man. But of yourselves you cannot hope to 
rid either yourselves or society of these evils. Therefore, 
while you neither countenance nor add to these evils, endure 
them. Be ye subject — be ye patient under the powers even 
of unrestrained usurpation until the day of the Lord Jesus 
and the times of the restitution of all things. Then will 
your salvation be nearer than now when you only belh 
Then shall the whole creation, which now is groaning and 
travailing together in pain, be delivered. Fur that deliver- 
ance patiently wait ye, and for this cogent reason am 
others — that it is infinitely more than you can hope of your- 
selves to effect, and consequently every attempt you may 
make for the premature achievement of it must prove not 
only abortive in itself but disastrous to you. 

"Can it be," asks some one who perceives at length whith- 
er my remarks arc tending with me — '•can it be that you. a 
minister of the Gospel and withal of the United Presbyter- 
ian persuasion, are in favor of "the union as it was"— 
slavery .' To such a one I would reply briefly but unequi- 



»>> 



vocally, 1 aw, — if indeed it must be ; that is, if God shall 
not be pleased to over reach the lawful endeavors of our offi- 
cers and our armies and unite us in a better union. With 
all its evils — and T would say nothing that may in any way 
be construed into an unjust palliation of any of them — "the 
union as it was," gave rise to and for more than two gi 
tions maintained one of the strongest and most beneficent 
governments of which the history of th? world can boast. 
Nor am I by any means sure that this union, the best practi- 
cable at the time it was formed, would not be the very best 
practicable just now. It would be better than an unwarrantable 
prolongation of the war, even for a warrantable end. (You 
will understand from other pi what I mean by this; I 

have not time to guard myself as effectually as perhaps i 
should, against the carpings of the narrow-minded cavileer.) 
id be better than despotism, or anarchy, or enslave- 
ment to a foreign power — the only alternatives, besides 
"union as it was," that, as I solemnly fear, arc left to our 
unhappy country to-day. 

But must the union be just "as it was?" Though identi- 
cal in theory, might it not be very different in fact ? V 
is the i ntly loyal and Christian man, who did not be- 

■ve, that the death-knell of slavery 
was sounded almost four years ago in the first bombardment 
of Fort Sumpter? Nay, where is the man who until lately 
did not believe or at least feign to believe that were the 
South at any time to be received to the union " 
and were the gateways over Mason and Dixon's line to be 
thus opened up to admit the titul emigration of the North, 
slavery would not in all probability be found in many of the 
States lour years hence? I grant indeed that the future of 
the races in our land is involved in impenetrable darl 
.But I should be doing violence to some of the deepest con- 
victions of my mind, if I did not here express my belief, 
that this future might be worked out much more humanely 
for all concerned than it now is likely to be worked out un- 
der the radical policy adopted at length by Mr. Lincoln. 

By this time you will all have inferred that I am in favor 
Clellan, as the truly conservative or constitutional 
candidate in this Let me 

.id be afraid to be for Mr. Lincoln. "And why 
so?" you will ask. "Not surely. - you like not the 

end he has in view ':" Xo, no ; but because 1 dread the con- 



92 



sequences of the means he seems ready to employ for the 
attainment of this end. 

As i stand hero from Sabbath to Sabbath, I feel myself to 
be committed to but one party and. one theory, the party 
and the theory of those 

nial <(> That this 

coming will be pre ial, I have not the lea 

That tl with the indications of 

ing, I am also well enough impressed. And that Mr. Lin- 
coln, by erabrai ly and withal 
the world-wide cry is about to ass 
no immaterial d ing the way of the kin 
the earth for this coini by no means unassun 

"But," interposes one, "if the election of Mr. Lincoln 
would in your view, hasten the advent of that day for which 
you so fervently pray, why do you not vote !' 

"It must need ences come: but woe to h 

whom they come." It must needs be, as I thi ording 

secret counsi the troubl ch are 

immediately to precede the advent of the Son o come. 

Yet woe to him who does anything, designedly to bring 
them about. 

I solemnly believe it to be the bounden duty of all who 
entertain the like precious faith with me to act with the con- 
servative portion of both State and Church and thus to do 
what individually they can to postpone to the last, "the hour 
of temptation" which assuredly is coming, and that quckly, 
upon all the earth. 

I have done. The times in which we live, my fellow-citi- 
zens, demand of us the gi ration, forbearance and 
prudence. If ever there was a time when the counsel 
blessed Lord was in place, it is now : — "In your patience pos- 
sess ye your souls." In your patience as meml 
possess ye your souls. In your patience as members of the 
household of faith, possess ye your souls. Ai 
not angry at one another, and ready to bite and devour one 
another, as too many just now are, because, forsooth 
cannot see eye to eye a is. Above all seek to know 
and to follow after the things which make for the peace, not 
so much of the State as of the Church, Wo to the 
man who shall sacrilegiously tamper with the peace of Christ's 
house ! ; gs, on the contrary, I 
who shall labor while he -prays for the peace of Je 



21 



iem !" lie, and he only, shall he made a partaker in the 
promise with which the divine injunction is urged — "they 
shall prosper that love thee," 0, Jerusalem. 






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